Cremation of deceased loved ones has become a common practice as it provides a significant reduction in the storage requirements for interment of the remains. Until recently, most urn storage units were constructed of concrete, which did not provide for an easily transportable unit once manufactured, thereby adding a significant cost in shipping. Columbariums or urn storage units provide long term storage for urns holding cremated human remains. In many cases, columbariums are located outside and therefore exposed to the elements. Therefore, construction of a columbarium must be durable and weather-tight. In the last 20 years efforts have been made to use other material in the construction of columbariums such as fiberglass and plastic. In addition to making the urn storage units lightweight, plastic provides versatility by allowing varying size storage niches. One such design is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,754,805 issued to Pangburn, et al.. The Pangburn disclosure is an urn storage assembly having a plurality of tubular storage members of generally rectangular cross-section, shaped to receive cremated remain storage urns. The storage members are nested in abutting side-by-side and top-to-bottom relationship to one another. The storage members are held together by securing means which engage the end corner portions of adjacent storage members. Although this disclosure provides an assembly that can be expanded, it does not provide an assembly that can be efficiently transported.
A design disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,195,812 issued to Eickhof on Mar. 23, 1993, discloses a framework using planar risers having brackets to support lightweight shelving. The risers are connected to tie rods. Additional hardware is needed to attach and anchor the framework to the next support structure. This disclosure does not provide for an urn support that is easily assembled.